1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to protective structures for dairy cows and, more particularly, to a structure which shades and cools dairy cows in semi-arid climates.
2. Description of the Related Art
To maintain proper health of dairy cows raised in semi-arid climates, some form of protection from the sun and heat must be provided. For example, a corral structure for evaporatively cooling dairy cows is disclosed in Applicant's prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,387. It is also known to provide an open-air roof above a feeding area to protect cows from the direct rays of the sun overhead while feeding. While such structures are helpful to shade the cows during feeding, daytime temperatures in semi-arid climates often rise to dangerously high levels, even in shaded areas.
After feeding, dairy cows spend time chewing their cud. While the dairy cows may be shaded during feeding, they typically move away from the feeding area to chew their cud, and hence leave the protective shade of known roof structures.
In addition, known shaded feeding structures have roofs which channel any rainwater to the peripheral edges of the roof, where such rainwater falls and collects upon the ground. Such damp areas foster the growth of bacteria, and pose an additional health risk to such dairy cows.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,358 to Launder discloses a poultry house incorporating an air-conditioning system and manure-disposal system. While the apparatus disclosed therein may perform adequately for poultry, such system would not have practical use in conjunction with much-larger dairy cows. British Pat. No. 1,320,293 issued to Cadborough Engineering Company Limited discloses an effluent disposal system for an animal house; however, no mechanism is provided thereby for eliminating puddling of rainwater that drains from the roof of the disclosed structure. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,387 to Anderson discloses an animal housing facility incorporating a waste collection pit, but again, rainwater draining from such structure simply rolls off of the roof and puddles along the base of such structure.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a protective structure for dairy cows which both shades the cows during feeding and keeps the cows cool and dry while they chew their cud.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a protective structure which keeps the cows cool while permitting convenient access to the interior structure for cleaning.
A still further object of the present invention is to prevent any rainwater that falls upon such structure from pooling around the perimeter of the structure as might breed bacteria.
Still another object of the present invention is to advantageously use any collected rainwater to assist in flushing waste products from the protective structure.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a protective structure that is inexpensive and easy to construct.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a protective structure to shade and cool dairy cows and which minimizes the volume of air within such structure that needs to be cooled.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art as the description thereof proceeds.